216. Hanging By A Thread

Bridgeport, present day

Krimsyn took Michaela's departure the hardest. Soon after her daughter left, she thought the arrangement was temporary and Michaela would be back in no time. But after a week of absence and no real contact from Michaela except for a few brief messages informing them she was fine, Krimsyn had to start facing the possibility that her little girl might be gone for longer than she'd anticipated.

She tried to fight off her worry, tried to keep her depression away, but in the end both proved to be much stronger than her. For days all she did was stay in bed and cry. She refused to go anywhere, refused to talk to anyone; she pretty much refused to do anything really.

She stopped doing the things she loved to do before Michaela left, she lost interest in her music, she also forfeited a few sponsorships in the process because she often failed to honor her promotional appearances.

All she wanted was her baby girl.

At first J.D. was very patient with her. He understood her pain too well, understood too that in a way, just like him, she was in mourning. 

But when he saw what her depression was doing to her health, his stoic resolve to be the supportive partner crumbled, and one night they got into their worst ever screaming match.

She accused him of not caring enough about Michaela, and he in turn accused her of not caring enough about the baby she was carrying.

Their argument went on for a while, with more accusations and blame being thrown around, but it ended abruptly when Krimsyn fainted.

Worried sick about Krimsyn, J.D. called their obstetrician as soon as she came to.

Dr. Owami treated her for malnutrition and dehydration, and she was very concerned about her shocking weight loss. 

Krimsyn explained to the doctor she wasn't intentionally starving herself, she just didn't have an appetite.

As much as the doctor sympathized with them over the situation with Michaela, her primary concern was their unborn child. She warned them if Krimsyn didn't pull herself together, they'd lose the baby, the fetal size was considerably smaller than it should be at this stage of the pregnancy, and his heartbeat wasn't the strongest.

"I don't know what to do anymore," J.D. told her soon after the doctor left. They were both trying to sleep, but failing miserably because the rift between them was growing unbearably wider each day.

“I just want her back," Krimsyn cried into her pillow.

J.D.  heard the anguish in her voice, saw her shoulders shake from her tears, but he couldn't bring himself to hold her. He was very angry with her, angry that she'd risk losing another child.

"Please hold me," she looked at him over her shoulder. The plea in her eyes was his undoing; even if he'd wanted to say no, he couldn't have.

Wordlessly he moved closer to her and wrapped his arms around her. His hands unconsciously drifted to her stomach, she wasn't as big as she was when she was expecting Michaela.

Their son kicked his greeting when he felt his touch. He rubbed her tummy in response. The kicking continued, growing stronger by the minute and J.D.  smiled his first real smile in a long time.

"I do love him," Krimsyn whispered as she placed her hand over his and together they felt their baby's somersaults.

"He's our second chance, to get it right this time. We can't lose him," JD told her.

He thought she'd lose it again and they'd get into another screaming match, but he was pleasantly surprised when she turned around and caressed his face gently before her lips found his...

An hour later, J.D. rose from the bed. Krimsyn was fast asleep and he was glad for that, she needed to rest after their emotional evening. He needed to rest too, but sleep remained elusive to him.

He softly padded downstairs to the living room, and grabbed his cell phone from the coffee table. He wanted to contact Michaela and let her know her mother’s health was failing. But he didn’t want it to seem like he was luring her back home, he understood her need for escape, she was at a bad place and had to figure things out for herself.

For a long time he just sat there, typing a text message to his daughter only to erase it. He must have done it a couple of times, before he decided to fuck it all and video call her.

He got through to her immediately. She sounded sleepy, and J.D. wanted to kick himself for waking her up. Just because he couldn’t sleep it didn’t mean the rest of the world couldn’t either.

“I’m sorry I woke you up, sweetheart, go back to sleep.” He was prepared to hang up, but Michaela stopped him.

“No, I’m awake.” She told him, and J.D. knew it was an obvious lie; she looked sleepy. “What’s going on?”

“I missed you, and I was just checking up on you, that’s all. Are you okay? Do you need anything?” He asked.

“I’m fine, still on the road, I’m in Monte Vista, Dad, did you know this town exists, it reminds me of Champs Les Sims, I think I’ll go there next to visit Grandpa and Grandma Summers!” Michaela sounded excited, and J.D. found himself smiling at her enthusiasm. She was okay, exploring the world, discovering herself, and it was all that mattered.

“How about you Dad, is everything okay?” Her question caught him off-guard  He knew what she was asking , and he really didn’t want to get into it with her. If he told her the truth, she’d stop her healing and run back home.

“I’m great, everything’s great,” he lied. He wasn’t great. Nothing was great. In fact it was all turning to shit, fast. The sharks could smell the blood, and they were circling closer, any day now he expected the guys in uniform to bang on his door and arrest him. He dreaded that day, it kept him awake, and he prayed that when it happened, his daughter and Krimsyn wouldn’t be around to witness it. It would just break them.

“You know I can tell when you’re lying. Should I be worried? Should I come home? I can you know, it was a little selfish of me to take off like this, but I needed to do it. It doesn’t mean I can’t come home if you need me,” Michaela sounded worried now. And it took J.D. a few minutes to convince her he was okay; she had nothing to worry about.

“Please promise me you’ll check in more often. Your mom really misses you, and she needs to hear your voice and make sure you’re okay. Please call her,” he changed the topic.

“Of course, I’ll call her in the morning. And I’m sorry, I just get so lost in the town sometimes, there’s so much to see, so much to explore. Did I tell you I’m staying at this little commune on the outskirts of town, and the owners have a nice organic garden going on? I’ve been taking care of it. Can you believe it? Me, taking care of a vegetable patch?”

J.D. chuckled. No, he couldn’t believe it. His daughter was always on the wild side, he always figured if she had to take up a hobby it would be graffiti or street breakdancing  Definitely not gardening. But he was glad she had, it was obviously therapeutic.

“Anyway, its harvest time now, so whatever I get from the garden, I sell at the farmer’s market, I have my own little stall there,  and the owners are kind enough to split their profit with me, it’s not much, but it helps with every day things.” Michaela added.

“You know if you need money-” J.D. started to say, but she cut him off.

“I know, Daddy, I still have funds in my account, but I don’t need it, I do just fine with what I make at the market and my tips from playing the guitar.”

“You still play?” The idea of her playing the guitar made him very happy. Music was always something very precious to her, and he’d worried since they’d let Joshua into that world when he worked for O+ Records, it would have been one more thing he’d tainted for her. He was glad to learn Joshua hadn’t destroyed that part of her.

“Of course I still play! Hayden thinks I’m as good as mom. I’ll ask him or maybe Lowell to snap pics of me at the farmer’s market and I’ll Instagram them to you guys.”

J.D. was happy he’d be seeing her pictures soon, he just didn’t know if he should like the camera men.

“Who are Hayden and Lowell?” The Papa bear in him came out then.

“Oh just two brothers, they’re staying at the commune, not sure for how long though, they’ve been drifting since their whole family was wiped out by the plague in Moonlight Falls.”

J.D. remembered hearing about the bubonic plague in the news; it was around the time they were on the After Dark tour. In fact it was right about the same time Eloise was bitten.

“Are they shifters, those two boys?” He asked.

“Yes, they are. But they are good guys, unlike that meanie who bit Eloise.” Michaela informed him.

“Okay, if they start any shit, let me know…” Again she cut off his rant.

“I know, but I’m big girl. I can take care of myself.”

“Okay, I love you sweetheart, and stay out of trouble,” he told her as they were hanging up.

“I love you too. Tell mom I love her, I wish I was there to feel her tummy.”

“She would have loved that,” J.D. smiled at the thought.

“And Daddy how’s Cam?” She sounded sad now; all the chirpiness was gone from her voice.

“He misses you.”

“I miss him too. I love him.”

“Maybe you should call him and tell him that?” J.D. suggested.

“I will, soon. I’ll call everyone.”

Credits: 

The doctor pose on the bed was made by mypalsim for one of her stories, you can find it here. Thank you Brooke for sharing it.

Apologies:

Forgive me for totally abusing the smart phone interactions with J.D. I thought of just using one pic, but it would have been one long chunk of text, and chunky text makes me very nervous.

Updates: I know they've gotten really sporadic lately. But between work projects and my daughter's homework and school activities I just can't find the time to take screenshots and post. So, updates will be on a 'when I can basis', this applies to TF too. On the bright side, the writing on TF is complete, I just have to start taking screens for the final seven chapters. And I've begun mapping out the final chapters for Krisis, so hopefully both stories will be wrapped up sometime this year. 

Thank You: to everyone who's stuck with me till now, even when I seem to be updating less and less, your unwavering support means stax to me.

Namaste!